Play Review: "Ogunquit Playhouse's 'Music Man' hits the high notes

Thursday

Jul 28, 2011 at 2:00 AM

There aren't enough superlatives in the thesaurus of musical theater to describe the current production of "The Music Man" at the Ogunquit Playhouse. The all-award-winning show that ran in New York for more than three years is presented here in all its finery, from the dum-ditty-dum music and lyrics of "Ya Got Trouble" to the softly romantic "Til There Was You," the entire show is Broadway-level quality.

Joe Sheehan

There aren't enough superlatives in the thesaurus of musical theater to describe the current production of "The Music Man" at the Ogunquit Playhouse. The all-award-winning show that ran in New York for more than three years is presented here in all its finery, from the dum-ditty-dum music and lyrics of "Ya Got Trouble" to the softly romantic "Til There Was You," the entire show is Broadway-level quality.

Adding to the magic of Meredith Willson's words and music, Ray Roderick's top-notch direction, the orchestrations of Ken Clifton and the eyebrow-raising choreography of Jeffrey Denman, is a cast of characters right out of middle America. In fact, the story is based on recollections of Willson's childhood in a small town in Iowa.

There's the blustery mayor and his bust-heavy wife, a foursome of townsmen who will drop everything and everybody to join in a barbershop quartet and provide just about perfect close harmony, and the youngest singer in the show, Bryan Marden, who shows impressive stage presence to go along with his impressive voice.

The story revolves around a smooth-talking traveling salesman named Harold Hill, who arrives in the sleepy village of River City, Iowa, and proceeds to con the town into financing a fully uniformed brass band — although not one resident has ever been close to a coronet. But the con goes on, taking everybody in, save Marian the librarian who remains aloof to the huckster's charms until he cures her little brother of his lisp, and then all bets are off.

There are some delightful bits in the production, all the more impressive because this was Meredith Willson's very first stage play. To be sure, the original all-star Broadway cast had a sizeable share of the credit with Robert Preston as Hill, Shirley Jones as Marian, Buddy Hackett as Marcellus Washburn and the inimitable Paul Ford as Mayor Shinn.

Although Preston casts a long shadow, in Ogunquit's production Peter Scolari fills a good deal of it in, even with this being his first musical stage show.

To grow into the rest of it, Scolari will have to shed his own wholesomeness, which shines through even when he is telling the bovine mayor's wife that her walk has a certain indefinable grace. The audience can tell he's doing it with an inner grimace.Where his goodness glows, however, is when he is working with his prospective band members as he convinces each one of them there is a talent inside him or her and not to be shy about exploiting it. The town takes him to its bosom until, that is, the "heavy" shows up in the form of another traveling salesman.

The new arrival, an anvil salesman (remember it's 1910), tells the mayor and others that Hill has practiced this band scam on other small towns, skittering away with a small fortune. He has proof that Hill is neither a professor nor even a college graduate.

It all filters into a rousing finish that had a recent production of the sold-out show stomping and shouting despite the gagging temperature. There is no question in this writer's mind that despite some stellar shows in the past, "The Music Man" stands alone as the best musical production of any all the way down to Boston. It really is a can't-miss production and even if you have to dip into the milk money, you shouldn't miss this really memorable show, another winner for Ogunquit's Executive Director Brad Kenney.

"The Music Man" runs Tuesday through Sunday, through Aug. 20. For show times and ticket information, visit www.ogunquitplayhouse.org or call the box office at 646-5511.

Familiar faces

You might be seeing some young familiar faces onstage at the Ogunquit Playhouse this run. Among the principal cast is Elizabeth Elkington from Kennebunkport, performing in the Amaryllis Gold Cast. Among the ensemble cast are Katie Charlton and Chloe Smith of Kennebunk; Colby Kingston, Piper Kingston, Shae Kingston, Kellie Ryam, and Kyle Ryan of Kennebunkport; Estelle Reardon of Ogunquit; and Breckyn Ginchereau and Livia Ginchereau of Cape Neddick.

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